List of Etomite Snippets that do (or don't) work in ModX

Hi,

Wondering if we could set up a list of known issues with Etomite Snippets.

It could be a simple list of Snippets in the Etomite Library (with version numbers) and we could comment on whether they are known to work (or conversely not work) in ModX.

Richard

Or - Modx could get it’s own snippet library...

Yes, I would be much happier if we were unlinked as much as possible from Etomite (except, of course, for acknowleging our origins). But then I abhor unpleasantness, and try to forsee and avoid any possibility of same. I suppose many years of observing people in action have made me a bit cynical.

would be good to alway’s be able to use eto snippets in mod-x if we would have to "translate"all the snippets that are made for eto to Mod-X than this take a lot of time that we could use in making Mod-X a better system. Xwisdom thinks this could be solved by making a module that suports all the etomite API calls instead of having alway’s 2 API’s running.

Dimmy

Hmmm, I am sure that MODx will have it’s own library of some sort. Just that Ryan ect ... probably are up to their ears in TP4 manager work.

I was thinking that some sort of formal talks should pass between eto and modx about snippets/chunks for now. In the future I bet that this issue will be more of a issue regarding do we support previous code or not.

Also, another thought occurred to me was of a "cross library" between the two. You know, where both could be used freely. However, once again with newer versions would this be a dated idea?

Let’s extend a hand in friendship to eto and other communities!!!

I was wondering about the legal ramifications of using Etomite snippets. Are all of the snippets automatically GPLd since they’re an extension of a GPL platform? Or do we have to deal with licensing on a snippet by snippet basis? Most of the snippets mention nothing of licensing, I don’t know if that means that we are free to use them or not.

I am especially ignorant of legal issues. I realy should get myself up to speed on licensing issues (but then again, ignorance is bliss)

From what I’ve seen on the net, including my understanding ....
errr ... if it’s worth much ....

I do believe (if I understand snippets enough) that they’d become GPL automatically since eto/modx is such. The reason being is that a snippet is not independent (or you could say dependent) on eto/modx to run.

The interesting question would be for something like SMF (the forum here). It does not need eto/modx to run so technically it should be able to on a separate license from eto/modx. The reason is that it does not need eto/modx to run and the only dependencies consist of a snippet to tie into eto/modx.

Now, what happens if let’s say a developer developes a cool deal like a download system to control files being presented by eto/modx. The question would be could it stand by itself and still retain it’s orignal intention? If it depends on APIs from eto/modx then it will come under the GPL. If not, then I think it might be safe to say that it could go under it’s own license.

With the above example the slandering of the GPL comes about with the term -- viral.

Let’s take a look at another example. Eto has moved on to what it’s called metacube. (I could be way off!) Etomite is GPL so does metacube fall under the same license? Yes or No? It all depends on if the code in the new program is completely different than Eto. I do believe that it only applies to the code and not the basic functionality (errr, this I’m not sure of). So if metacube has no code from eto than the developer is free to choose the license he so pleases. IF NOT, hmmm, problems could arise.

Can you sell GPL programs? YES.

Can you buy a GPL program and then give it out for free on the net or to any Tom, Dick or Harry on the street corner? YES

GPL is pretty cool but if you are to make money on it then you better go check out RedHat and borrow their business system. The system behind making money off of GPL is the key! aka, McDonalds -- sheety burgers but one hell of a system!

I hope that I didn’t go overboard on this and hope that I haven’t accidently mislead anybody by providing false information.

Cheers!

All Eto snippets should work unmodified in MODx. MODx however has some API calls available that are not in Eto, but as we’re licensed under the GPL, they too are free to incorporate our API enhancements. In fact, I’d love it if they’d do so!

And as Dean said (Hi Dean... thanks for visiting!,) we will have our own library as should be expected. Hopefully sooner than later, however it has obviously not been a priority during the pre-marketing/non-"final"/pre-1.0 release work that has gone on to date.

And as far as GPL goes, my basic understanding is that

• if it’s coded from scratch, you pick the license
• if it is an integrated part of a GPL project or a modification of GPL’d software, AND it’s being distributed, the "viral" nature of a GPL kicks in
• if it’s a plugin, or some other external project that links to or takes advantage of an API, BUT does not modify the GPL’d software itself, it can be licensed any way you choose
• GPL has nothing to do with free as in dollars, although GPL software is almost always distributed as free. You could for example have commercial, non-open source modules for MODx, and I’m 99% certain we’ll see more than one of them from multiple sources (even "official MODx" ones!) -- MODx gives you a platform to not only generate services revenue, but also product revenue

Hmmm... Ryan was faster...

An interesting read for this topic is also this discussion in a Mambo forum.

I’d say: License of the etomite snippets has to be checked one-by-one.

For Metacube:
If you write a program yourself (no contributions by others), you don’t have to limit yourself to the right the GPL grants - you own all the rights to your program. So I’d say Metacube could be non-GPL if only those parts that were written by Alex go into the new code (I don’t know if there ever was an Etomite version without third-party contribution). In fact, I’ve read that they plan to rewrite from scratch, so they won’t have any legal issues anyway.

Ok, looks like I misunderstood something along the way here.

So, let’s say if someone writes a "helpdesk" program for modx (just using modx as an example) using modx APIs could somebody then go ahead and charge for it without releasing it through the GPL?

As for Metacube that is the way I thought it was going and just used it as an example above (I just thinking that many users here would be more familiar with the etomite >> metacube change than maybe some other project).

I think that it’s good that this sticky part of any project comes out early and is mentioned very cleary that way later down the line this thread can be pointed to.

cheers and good wishes for all!